Do you ever feel like you are doing everything right and you still can't lose weight? It may be that you are underestimating what you are eating. Don't feel bad, according to research studies, 80% of us underestimate our food intake and that includes dietitians. This is easy to do because portion sizes have gotten so large that our estimate of a cup of rice or 3 ounces of meat is still much larger than reality. One study done at St. Luke-Roosevelt Hospital Obesity Research Center found that participants were estimating that they were eating around 1,000 calories each day when in fact they were actually eating 2,000 calories.

This was very apparent to me when I worked in private practice. I had plastic food models to show people what a portion size looks like and they always laughed and thought it was a joke. They would say things like, "yeah right